"No use to try and stop them!" I said, as they passed away into the shadows. "Why, they could not even see us!"
"No use at all," Lady Muriel echoed with a sigh. "One would like to meet them again, in living form! But I feel, somehow, that can never be. They have passed out of our lives!" She sighed again; and no more was said, till we came out into the main road, at a point near my lodgings.
"Well, I will leave you here," she said. "I want to get back before dark: and I have a cottage-friend to visit, first. Good night, dear friend! Let us see you soon——and often!" she added, with an affectionate warmth that went to my very heart. "For those are few we hold as dear!"
"Good night!" I answered. "Tennyson said that of a worthier friend than me."
"Tennyson didn't know what he was talking about!" she saucily rejoined, with a touch of her old childish gaiety; and we parted.
